Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Israel on Sunday revoked the VIP pass of Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, in line with a Cabinet decision last week to sanction Ramallah in response to the U.N.’s passage, at the P.A.’s behest, of a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to weigh in on the legal status of Judea and Samaria. Border officials stopped al-Malki as he crossed from Jordan into the P.A., and confiscated the travel document allowing him to expedite or altogether bypass normal security checks in Judea and Samaria. “In the dip...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday that “profound” disagreement over the government’s judicial reform plan was tearing the country apart, and vowed to work towards averting a constitutional crisis. “We are in the grips of a profound disagreement that is tearing our nation apart. This conflict worries me deeply, as it worries many across Israel and the Diaspora. The foundations of Israeli democracy, including the justice system, are sacred and we must strictly safeguard them, even at a time of fundamental arguments and debat...
(JTA) — An exodus of Jews from Russia since President Vladimir Putin invaded neighboring Ukraine has drawn widespread attention over the last year. But according to statistics released recently by Russia’s official statistics bureau, the country’s Jewish population had fallen sharply long before the tanks began rolling. The statistics, published last month by Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service, showed that just 82,644 people identified themselves as Jews on the national census, conducted in 2021. Another nearly 2,000 people identif...
Pentagon transferring arms stationed in Israel to Ukraine—report (JNS) — The Pentagon is dipping into a store of American ammunition in Israel to help Ukraine replenish its dwindling supply of artillery shells, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. “With stockpiles in the United States strained and American arms makers not yet able to keep up with the pace of Ukraine’s battlefield operations, the Pentagon has turned to two alternative supplies of shells to bridge the gap: one in South Korea and the one in Israel,” the Times reported,...
WASHINGTON (JTA) –Republican Party officials in Rep. George Santos’ Long Island district called on the serial fabricator to quit, citing among other lies his claims to Jewish and Holocaust heritage. The call Wednesday by officials of the Nassau County Republican party was significant because the Republican majority in the U.S. House of representatives is precarious — just five members — and the Republican Santos’ 3rd District could easily swing back to Democrats in a special election. “Today, on behalf of the Nassau County Republican Committee,...
(New York Jewish Week) — Three state lawmakers are asking if Yeshiva University misrepresented itself as a secular institution in order to qualify for more than $230 million in public funds. Their letter demanding a full accounting from the Modern Orthodox flagship is the latest twist in the university’s attempts to block an LGBT student club from getting official campus recognition. In fighting court orders to accept the club, Y.U. has been insisting that, despite a charter that describes it as a secular institution, it has a distinct religiou...
(JNS) — Punitive measures imposed by Israel on the Palestinian Authority will “promptly lead to its collapse,” P.A. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday. Israel’s Security Cabinet last week approved the measures in response to what it described as the P.A.’s ongoing “political and legal war” against the Jewish state. They came a week after the U.N. General Assembly, at the urging of the P.A., passed a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupati...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - With a new right-wing government in Israel raising alarm bells among many in the United States, the timing seemed ripe for a gathering by AIPAC, which regularly convenes bigwigs to talk about the U.S.-Israel relationship. But the group's conference this week in Washington is focusing not on that relationship but on American electoral politics. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's "Political Leadership Forum" this week is closed to press. But it offers the latest...
Many people describe Bethanne (Wellness) Weiss as someone with boundless energy and incredible wisdom. The Jewish Pavilion is pleased to honor Weiss at its upcoming fashion show on Thursday, Feb.16 at Dillard's Altamonte Mall. "Bethanne is someone who rarely says 'no' and she has the uncanny ability to do it all," says Nancy Ludin CEO of Jewish Pavilion. "She is not only chairing the fashion show, but she is modeling and serving as the honoree. For Bethanne, wearing three hats at the same time...
(JTA) — A prize established to honor a single inspiring Jew with a lifetime of achievements has been awarded this year to a nameless group whose work is ongoing: Jewish activists in war-ravaged Ukraine. The Genesis Prize Foundation said the war in Ukraine required a change in the approach it has taken since creating the prize, known by some as the “Jewish Nobel,” a decade ago. “Recognizing the extraordinary nature of events dominating the past 11 months, The Genesis Prize Selection Committee has decided to depart from the usual custom of awar...
(JNS) — Speaking at the annual Combat Antisemitism Movement Advisory Board meeting Wednesday night, chairman Natan Sharansky underscored the importance of countering the global rise of antisemitism. “For the last 20 years, we could say antisemitism is on the rise, so what makes this year different?” said Sharansky, addressing the online meeting. “In the past, we’ve talked about antisemitism on the left, and antisemitism on the right. This year it became mainstream.” The Combat Antisemitism Movement facilitates a non-partisan movement to...
(JNS) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday repeated his promise to block vocal critic of Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In an interview with Punchbowl News, McCarthy said that he would also prevent Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from assuming their assignments in the House Intelligence Committee. “Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector. I’m not going to give him a government clearance,” McCarthy said. “Schiff has lied too many times...
(JNS) — The White House announced on Thursday that Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff will travel to Europe this month to participate in Holocaust remembrance events. Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, is set to visit Krakow, Poland, from Jan. 26 -29. On Jan. 27, Emhoff, joined by U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, is slated to visit the Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He will also participate in a wreath-laying ceremony and attend the annual commemoration of International H...
(JTA) — The zoo in Cologne, Germany, has gotten its first check from the $26 million gift promised by the widow of a Holocaust survivor who credited the city’s residents for saving him during the war. Elizabeth Reichert willed the funds to the Cologne Zoological Garden in 2017 in honor of her husband Arnulf, who died in 1998. Both Reicherts were born in Cologne and met during World War II, when Elizabeth was part of the local anti-Nazi resistance network and Arnulf, a German Jew, was in hiding with the network’s help. “They only survive...
(JTA) – As Israel’s new right-wing government continued to signal that it would push through measures to cripple the judiciary and clamp down on public dissent and news operations, thousands of citizens took to the streets in protest and one prominent opposition figure warned of imminent “civil war.” A reported 10,000 demonstrators gathered Saturday night in Tel Aviv to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing government, which contains several ministers who are openly hostile to Arabs and Palestinians, LGBTQ peo...
(JTA) - Pinchas Goldshmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow who fled the country earlier this year, said other Russian Jews should leave before it's too late in an interview with the Guardian. "When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community," Goldschmidt told the Guardian. "We saw this in tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime." He...
(JNS) - The Deborah Project, a public interest law firm dedicated since 2016 to protecting Jewish civil rights in the American educational system, recently announced that it will hire more litigation attorneys thanks to a generous donation. "As the result of a generous grant from a private foundation, TDP is extending its reach, and hiring additional lawyers to enable it to bring this fight to more courtrooms," Legal Director Lori Lowenthal Marcus told JNS. "We have brought a legal challenge in...
(JNS) - Sometimes going home is hard. Enter La'aretz, a new non-profit organization with the mission to help Israelis and Jews overcome bureaucratic and financial obstacles to immigrating, returning, visiting and traveling to Israel. "There are a good amount of people that just give up on the idea of moving or returning to Israel, just because they basically have no one to ask or be assisted by," said Shelly Harel, the organization's founder and CEO. Harel is a former employee at the Israeli con...
(JNS) — The Eretz HaKodesh and Coalition for Jewish Values organizations criticized a letter — written by The Jewish Federations of North America, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Hayesod and the World Zionist Organization — which expressed concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government. Netanyahu’s cabinet was sworn in last Thursday. “It is our duty to share with you our deep concern regarding voices in the government on issues that could undermine the long-standing status quo on religious affairs that could affect the...
(JNS) — Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said he was “overjoyed” when he heard that the U.N. Security Council was holding an emergency meeting Thursday over the “quiet, orderly, uneventful” visit of an Israeli government minister to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. “I figured that if this important body is meeting to discuss such a trivial matter, then we clearly achieved world peace overnight,” Gilad Erdan said, mocking the council’s decision to submit to the Palestinians’ demand for a discussion on the matter. Unsurprisingly, much...
(JNS) — On Jan. 7 after midnight, the 118th Congress was finally sworn in with the election of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to the House speakership. Democrats had managed to gain one Senate seat in November’s midterms, breaking the 50:50 tie in the upper chamber that required Vice President Kamala Harris to break tied votes. For some anti-Israel Democratic lawmakers, the future is uncertain. A House minority leader During the midterm elections, Republicans recaptured the House by a narrow margin. Democrats nominated Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N...
(JTA) — In 1923 in New York, a Yiddish play that featured the first lesbian scene on a Broadway stage was censored for being indecent. In 2023 in Florida, a play about the first play has been canceled for the same reason. For many involved in the new play, including its Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish playwright and the Florida high schooler cast in a lead role, the déjà vu is alarming. “The 100-year anniversary of Sholem Asch’s ‘God of Vengeance’ being shut down on Broadway is the same week that our production of ‘Indecent’ would have open...
US and Israel must ‘stand together’ on Iran, Netanyahu tells AIPAC (JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the AIPAC Political Leadership Forum through a video call from his office in the Knesset on Monday, speaking about the importance of U.S.-Israel cooperation on Iran in the pro-Israel lobbying group’s first major conference since the COVID-19 pandemic. “The time has come for Israel and the United States, along with other countries, to stand together, and I look forward to discussing this with President Biden and his team...
(JNS) — A former Massachusetts state legislator is being condemned by Jewish and Zionist organizations for accusing Israel of “being on a mission to kill Palestinians.” During her final week in office, Democratic Rep. Jamie Zahlaway Belsito, who represents the fourth Essex district in the northeastern part of the state, took to Twitter on Dec. 29 to attack Israel and its new government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The US must acknowledge that the @Israel administration is an apartheid run thuggery terrorist regime on a mission...
(JNS) - The Israel education organization StandWithUs has filed a complaint against George Washington University with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, alleging a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complaint alleges "a pervasive, hostile, and discriminatory environment for Jewish and Israeli students within the Professional Psychology Program" at the university in the U.S. capital, the NGO announced on Thursday. The complaint says Prof. Lara Shee...
